I was invited because I’m the author of “The Bodrum Peninsula Travel Guide”, and the group consisted of people involved in the Long Beach/Izmir alliance, as well as local organizations looking to create stronger ties to chapters of the same organizations in Izmir.

Burcu Ünsal referred to the eclectic mix of attendees as a mix of the “young and the young at heart”. Burcu, also known as “Miss Sunshine” has been involved in the Long Beach/Izmir alliance for a while, and is a Turkish transplant running her own NLP company in Los Angeles, where she helps to coach people to Shine and reach their full potential.

We talked about our joint history in Marketing and Advertising, and we discovered that we had both worked at there of the same Advertising Agencies (McCann, Ogilvy and Saatchi) .. in different countries and at different times, but I’m sure if we’ve delved into degrees of separation, we would have found a co-worker we had in common.

The first was a brightly coloured macaw, called Pepper, who was being looked after by Julie Kohn. According to her business card, she’s a self-proclaimed writer, editor, visionary, muse; specializing in marketing, public relations, events and product planning. Oddly enough, there was no reference to a website on her card; can you support a successful business in today’s digital landscape without one anymore?

By the looks of things, Pepper has the leading role in this relationship (the picture below is Julia trying to retrieve Pepper for a nearby tree). Pepper is a very friendly 4 1/2 half year old, but already has her own Facebook page. Based on her Facebook Albums; she has a better social life than me!

The food was a delicious selection of salads and Turkish meze, including my favorite smoked eggplant. There was also borek made with fresh kale from the community garden.

The garden’s clay oven, had been fired up for the event, and was being fired-up and stoked by the Long Beach resident who built it for this community garden.

As we sat down for lunch, the coals were removed, and the pides and pizza filled with caramelized onion, garlic and white sheep’s cheese were cooked in the clay oven; they were done in no time.

Hot Coals being removed from the Clay Oven

Pizza and Pide in the oven

Preparing the pizza and pide for the clay oven

Each place setting had a small white box, and inside was the second splash of colour for the event … a red nose. These were a gift from expat Brit, Steve Thomason, who runs a company called “The Great Laughter Project“, which encourages groups and organizations, including schools clubs, community-based organizations, non-profits and churches, to raise funds for their own needs, by hosting their own Great Laughter Project.

During a speech about Rumi, we were encouraged to open small cube donation boxes, and read the individual quotations inside. Mine read:

“And Still, after all this time, the Sun has never said the Earth, “You owe me.”

Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.”

A nice touch, and a subtle way to introduce a new crowd to the works of this famous poet.

Most of the lunch time guest were unsure of what to do with the “red foam ball”; as they hadn’t heard of Red Nose Day, which is such a huge annual event in the UK, nor that they seen “Patch Adams“. But a few brave locals donned their red nose, and hammed it up for the camera.

Steve Thomason

The event lasted about three hours, and also in attendance was the Commercial Attache from the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, Gürkan Süzer (on the right in the photo below, standing next to Dennis Aytekin who hosted the Sister City event)

He was asked to give a speech at the beginning of the meal, and talked about the importance of trade to maintain global peace, with a wry smile he told us, “We like to say; don’t make war make….. trade”.

As the visiting dignitary, he added an element of credence to the event, and well as a selection of travel guides and maps of Izmir and Çeşme.

Musical entertainment was provided by a local American guitarist and a Turkish bağlama musician, East and West in harmony.

All told, an interesting mix of people, with with common goal of promoting a closer cultural alliance and understanding between these two towns on opposite sides of the globe.

[…] Another exciting development is the Sister City organization partnering Santa Monica (California) with Bodrum. It’s at the beginning of this alignment, and at the end of last month I attended the Sister City lunch for Izmir and Long Beach. […]

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